Spring Fever
by Rune Silverstar
Summary: From Valentine's to White Day, love is in the air. Of course, this being PoT, chaos is always a part of the mix. All the usual pairings plus Atobe and some of the Fudomine & St. Rudolph boys thrown in. (COMPLETE)
1. I Echizen

Title: Spring Fever

Author: Tanith

Rating: G

Genre: Light humor and a bit of romance

Fandom: Prince of Tennis

Disclaimer: Prince of Tennis and all its characters belong to Konami-sensei. I have zero claim to them and I'm not making any money off of this. So don't bother suing me.

Pairings: Atobe/Tezuka/Fuji, Golden Pair, InuKai, bits of MomoRyo & Kamio/Shinji

Summary: It's Valentine's Day and love is in the air. Of course, this being PoT, chaos is never far behind, even unto White Day.

* * *

**Spring Fever****  
I. Ryoma**

To Echizen Ryoma, it was a normal day like any other. But when his father sat across from him at breakfast and started grinning at him in that particularly annoying way, he knew something was up.

"Got something to say, oyaji?" he finally asked over the last glass of milk.

Nanjiroh smirked at his son. "Do you know what day today is, shounen?"

Ryoma looked at him blankly.

Nanjiroh's smirk grew. "It's Valentine's Day!" he announced. He winked at his unresponsive son, who was clearly unimpressed by the declaration. "So, you think you'll get any chocolates from the girls at school? Got any girlfriends, eh?" He started snickering again.

Ryoma would have rolled his eyes if he had cared enough to. But instead, he treated the taunting like he treated just about everything else his old man said to him. He largely ignored it. Pushing away his plate, he grabbed his tennis bag and headed for the door. "Ittekimasu."

Unfortunately, Ryoma's own overwhelming apathy toward anything not tennis or Karupin – which obviously extended toward whatever holiday – was not shared by anyone else. The moment he stepped into the gates of Seishun Gakuen he was immediately mugged by a swarm of girls pushing chocolates into his arms. By the time he finally found his seat and dumped his burden onto his desk, his arms had been overflowing with the candies.

And then Tomoka had arrived to add her own contribution to the growing pile, with a blushing and stammering Sakuno in tow. This naturally was the last straw that set off Horio, who had been largely ignored in the chocolate-receiving department. Even the usually fair Sakuno had somehow forgotten him, strange as that was given his often-heard voice in the stands at all the tennis matches, both at school and in competitions.

Staring at the new chocolates and the growing pile before him in annoyance, Ryoma automatically tuned out Horio's envious ranting as he tried to think of some way to get rid of them so he wouldn't have to carry all of it home. The solution came in the form of one Momoshiro Takeshi as the cheerful second year suddenly popped out from nowhere.

"Oi, Echizen! Looks like you're pretty popular with the girls, aren't you?" Momoshiro teased the younger boy, though to no effect.

"Aa," Ryoma muttered absently.

"Hai! Ryoma-sama is the most popular boy among the first years!" Tomoka declared exuberantly. "But I bet you get a lot of chocolates from the second year girls, ne Momo-senpai?"

Momoshiro grinned at her sheepishly. "Sure I do… but I already ate all of them." He eyed Ryoma's candy pile and the other boy's completely unenthusiastic face. "Say, Echizen, you wouldn't mind sharing some of yours with your senpai, would you?"

Ryoma shrugged. "Aa."

"Ryoma-sama!" Tomoka sounded scandalized.

"Thanks!" Momoshiro laughed and began to tear into the pile of candy.

As the pile of sweets began to diminish at an astonishing rate, Ryoma's contemplation of the candy refocused to an amused study of his senpai, who was busy doing an impression of a vacuum cleaner. He idly hoped that Kikumaru-senpai wasn't going to pop up as well, as he also had a habit of doing, because at this rate there wasn't going to be any candy left.

* * *

Next Chapter: Eiji. Getting off to a strong start as well. 

Author's Notes:

This is going to be a 10-chapter fic. Eight chapters will alternate between the POV of eight of the Seigaku regulars, and then the last two will deal with White Day and the rest of the aftermath the Valentine chaos. Right as of this moment, I've got 4 preliminary chapters up on my online journal (the link can be found on my author's page). These are more or less rough drafts which may be altered whenever I feel like it. I've got 3 and a half more chapters pretty much all sketched out on my hard drive. So I've only really got about 2 and a half chapters left to write. This means those of you out there who hate WIP's will probably not have to worry about this fic being left dangling indefinitely. I promise that it will be completed and posted before the month is out.

Vocabulary:  
Oyaji - old man  
shounen - (young) boy  
Ittekimasu - I'm leaving now.  
Seishun Gakuen -the full name of the school, Seishun Jr. High. Also, aka Seigaku for short.  
Aa - yes; sure. A sound of agreement or informal grunt of assent.  
Hai - yes.  
senpai - upperclassman. A term of respect.  
sama - highest form of honorific suffixes


	2. II Eiji

**Spring Fever**

**II. Eiji**

Valentine's Day was one of Eiji's favorite holidays, even more so than Christmas. After all, when else in the year was he going to get so much candy and chocolates all through the day?

As he polished off the last bag of Hello Kitty chocolates given to him by one of many blushing classmates, Eiji rummaged around to find any other pieces of confectionary that he had missed. Finding none among the scattered wrappers on his desk, he naturally gravitated toward the closest sources of sweets nearby, which just happened to be the similarly large pile of gift candies on Fuji's desk.

"Oi, Fuji…" Eiji looked pleadingly at the smiling tensai – or rather, at his candy. "You'll share your chocolates with your best friend, won't you?"

Fuji, who had been watching his friend in amusement, chuckled as he pushed the large pile of sweets toward Eiji. "You can have all of it," he told the other boy, "I don't really like sweets."

Eiji grinned as he pounced on the new source of sugar. "That's because Fuji likes spicy foods the best!" he declared, recalling a certain painful experience involving Fuji's favorite wasabi rolls. Neither boy noticed the hurried whispering in the background as several intrepid Fuji-fans who hadn't delivered their Valentine's Day gifts yet were now frantically trying to think of some way to take advantage of the new information.

Throughout the rest of class, Eiji covertly worked through his new pile of chocolates, almost getting caught several times by the teacher with the sound of munching from behind the cover of his textbook. Before he knew it, it was break time again, and he had finished the entire pile, plus a few more chocolates that had been slipped to him in the interim by a few bold girls.

Licking the last bit of chocolate from his lips (and not noticing the massive swooning that caused), Eiji stood from his chair and hurried out of the room. He still had one more ready source of candy yet.

It wasn't hard at all to find his doubles partner in room 3-2, surrounded as the other boy was by what seemed to be the entire female population of Seigaku third year. Fortunately, the lower classes weren't allowed to freely visit the upper classes, else there would have been no room left at all in the classroom.

With the limber grace of his acrobatics, Eiji easily navigated through the horde of raving girls and swung an arm around the neck of his much-embarrassed doubles partner. It was only the press of people around them that made him nearly drape himself all over Oishi, his face hovering close to the other's wide green eyes. Really.

"Eiji?" Oishi could practically feel the more-than-usually-hyper perkiness that could only come from sugar overdose vibrating from the redhead.

Eiji was already eyeing the stack of chocolates on his desk. "O-i-shi…" Large kittenish eyes peered back at his partner again in an all-out attack of cuteness. "Can I have some of your cho-co-lates?"

"Ah… uh…" Oishi was uncomfortably aware of the fact that he was surrounded by girls who had given or were trying to give him the aforementioned chocolates.

Eiji, however, took the stuttering for assent. "Nya! Oishi is so nice!" he gushed as he immediately attacked the pile of candy. He was completely oblivious of the the fact that he was still draped all over Oishi, as well as to the giggling of the girls around them, including a few whispered comments of how cute "they" were, and the slow blush that was creeping up Oishi's cheeks.

In seemingly no time at all, break was over and Eiji had finished his third pile of sweets. After the crowd of girls reluctantly dispersed around them, he shot a last cheeky grin at Oishi and raced off back to his own class, leaving the other boy sitting bemusedly in the wake of Hurricane Eiji.

* * *

Next Chapter: Oishi. Who may as well be resigned to being embarrassed all day. 


	3. III Oishi

**Spring Fever**

**III. Oishi**

Oishi warily looked around the secluded grove he had hidden himself in, expecting to get jumped at any moment. Slowly, he sat and took out… several lunches. Lunchtime had barely started when a few enterprising girls had accosted him with "Valentine bentos". It took a while before he could make his escape. But now he was safely hidden away. No one would find him here.

"Wai! Oishi!"

Eiji didn't count.

Oishi looked up at his doubles partner, who was drooling over his extra lunches. He could already guess what was coming next.

"Ne, Oishi, you're not going to eat all these yummy-looking lunches, are you? Share! Share!"

Oishi sighed. He'd never been good at saying "no" to Eiji. At least this time no one was watching.

"Here you go, Eiji," he said with a smile, pushing the other bentos toward the other boy, and watched as Eiji attacked the lunches with his usual gusto. "Maa. You don't need to eat so fast. If you're not careful you'll choke." He felt obliged to tack on that admonition, even if he knew it would be ignored.

"Mmf. Mmmmmf. Oommmf." Indeed, it was.

The rest of lunch was a quiet affair, Oishi enjoying his (single) lunch in rare companionable silence and Eiji too busy with his mouth to talk. Afterwards, they walked back to class together, legs moving in perfect synch and the backs of their hands lightly brushing with each step. Just as they entered the building though, Eiji suddenly stopped mid-step. Oishi paused as well, unconsciously reacting to his partner's movements as soon as they were made.

"Eiji?" Oishi looked at his partner and almost did a double take. "Are you feeling all right, Eiji?" he asked in concern as he studied his partner's face. There was something wrong… but he couldn't quite put his finger on what.

"Ah, I'm just full!" Eiji reassured him and began to rummage through his bag. "But I almost forgot something." He pulled out a brightly wrapped box and pushed it into Oishi's hand. "This is for you!"

Oishi stared at the small bag of chocolate cookies and then looked back up at Eiji's bright grin. "Valentine's Day cookies? B-but… you're not a girl…" The protest was half-hearted and he knew it, and he could already feel his face heating up.

Eiji shrugged lightly and blushed as well. "I was helping 'neechan make Valentine's chocolates yesterday and these were the best ones! So… so I thought you might like them…"

"I see." A new voice suddenly intruded onto the scene behind the duo, and they whirled around in unison to see Fuji there with his perpetual smile. "You ate all of his presents so yours would be the only one he'll take home, ne?" the tensai asked Eiji.

"Wah! That's not it at all!" Eiji immediately protested, his hands flapping comically. Though, now that Fuji said it that way, he thought that idea didn't sound so bad. Maybe next Valentine's…

The smile suddenly left Fuji's lips, though his eyes were still closed. "Are you feeling all right, Eiji? You look a little… green."

Oishi forgot his embarrassment as his concern for his partner returned full-force. He frowned as he studied his partner closely. Indeed, the other boy did look a bit sick.

"What? I'm fine, really!" Eiji was still protesting. "I'm f—Mmf!" Suddenly, he slapped a hand over his mouth, his eyes popping out in shock. He looked wildly around for a moment before rushing toward the bathroom.

"Eiji!" Oishi was right on his partner's heels.

Fuji stared for a moment before following them as well. He arrived to the sound of labored retching, and found Eiji collapsed over one of the toilets, his body convulsing. Oishi's arms were wrapped tightly around him, holding his suddenly boneless body upright.

Oishi looked up as Fuji joined them. "I don't think it's just the chocolates," he said worriedly.

"I agree," Fuji replied, having seen Eiji keep down piles of chocolates in previous years without much ill effect. "You should take him to the nurse. I'll tell your teachers."

"Aa." Oishi turned back to his partner. He barely noticed Fuji leaving or the bell ringing shortly thereafter. His thoughts raced and he decided it was uncomfortably likely that something in one of his gift lunches had caused this.

Finally, Eiji seemed to have emptied his stomach, and his shudders tapered away. Oishi gathered up his partner and maneuvered them over to the sink, where he carefully cleaned off Eiji's still disturbingly pale face with his handkerchief. He pressed a hand to the other boy's forehead, and was slightly relieved to find that at least there was no hint of raised temperatures.

"Eiji?" he called softly. "Can you walk? We need to get you to the nurse's office."

Eiji mumbled something unintelligible. He stumbled closer to his support and his head lolled onto Oishi's shoulder, his face automatically seeking the crook of the other boy's neck. Clearly, he was not well enough to move by himself. Thus, Oishi ended up carrying most of his weight as they made their way awkwardly out of the bathroom.

Unfortunately, they arrived there to an empty office, as the nurse had been called away on another case of food poisoning. There was nothing for them to do then but wait, so Oishi carefully eased them down onto a nearby bench. However, barely a few minutes had passed after he'd settled down when Eiji began to climb clumsily into his lap. Oishi blinked and he automatically reached out to keep his still disoriented partner from falling off.

"Ah… Eiji?" he asked uncertainly as Eiji proceeded to snuggle into his chest.

"Mmm… warm…" came the barely audible response. Eiji again buried his face into the crook of Oishi's neck. He was shivering slightly as he blindly sought for the nearby source of warmth.

Resignedly, Oishi wrapped his arms securely around his partner. He supposed that whatever mortified embarrassment he'd have to endure later would be a fair price to pay for Eiji's comfort.

* * *

Next Up: Tezuka. And Atobe shows up as well.

Notes: Wow. There's actually some whispy semblance of plot this time. gasp shock Heh. Also, this is pretty much as graphic as this fic is gonna get. I'm keeping this rated G, after all. Still, I think the GP-fluffiness alone ought to be enough to send most fans into sugar-shock already. Ne?

Vocabulary:  
bento - kind of boxed lunch  
'neechan - short for oneechan, which means sister  
tensai - prodigy  
Aa - sound of agreement


	4. IV Tezuka

**Spring Fever  
IV. Tezuka**

Tezuka did not like Valentine's Day. The minor annoyance of girls he barely knew who insisted on giving him chocolates was compounded by the fact that Fuji had felt obliged to visit him during every break time, simply to stand around and smile eerily at said girls. But even more so, he disliked the fact that he'd had to cancel morning practice _and _lock the doors to the tennis court during afternoon practice due to a steady stream of interruptions from yet another delivery of Valentine's candy. Even now, the squealing and screaming from the fangirls clinging to the courtsides was a constant distraction to everyone at practice.

Tezuka's eyes narrowed slightly as he finished his critical sweep across the courts. Seigaku's famed doubles team was not present.

"Fuji." He addressed the tensai who shared a homeroom with one of the missing duo. "Where is Kikumaru?" It was obvious that if both of the Golden Pair were missing, then whatever the trouble the acrobat had gotten into, Oishi was most likely with him.

Fuji turned with his usual smile. "Eiji was a little sick at the end of lunch. Oishi took him to the nurse."

"There is an 85 percent chance that Kikumaru had to be sent home for indigestion or food poisoning, and an 97 percent chance that Oishi accompanied him."

Both boys turned around to see Inui buried as always in his notebook. The light gleamed eerily from his glasses as he looked up. Beside him, Kaidoh inexplicably blushed, and edged away from his senpai.

Ryuzaki-sensei approached the group at that moment. "Inui is right. I've already received notice from the nurse that Kikumaru was sent home earlier. Oishi was given permission to help him home."

Before anyone could respond to that, however, a sudden renewed squealing caught everyone's attention. The doors of the tennis court now stood open, and the inimitable buchou of Hyoutei's tennis team sauntered in. Following him, as always, was the giant hulking form of Kabaji, carrying a huge red box labeled with the sign "Valentine's Day Chocolates for Ore-sama Here." Underneath those words, in smaller lettering, read "Accepting Swiss, Belgium, and Giovanni's brands only."

Atobe stopped a few steps inside the courts, posing for all to see. "Ore-sama no bigi ni yoina," he drawled. No one was surprised.

"You're not expecting anything from the girls at Seigaku, are you?" Momoshiro taunted loudly.

Atobe didn't deign to answer. He didn't have to, for at that moment, several girls did indeed run through the doors he had left open to drop chocolates into the box Kabaji held.

As most of the Seigaku tennis club stared and muttered amongst themselves at their rival buchou's audacity, Atobe sauntered up to the stoic form of Tezuka.

"Atobe," Tezuka's deadpan was unchanged. "Why are you here?"

"Why, to grace the ladies and gentlemen of Seishun Gakuen with my glorious presence, of course," Atobe replied, his arrogant smile fully in place, "especially on today of all days."

Tezuka stared at the box Kabaji held, then at the girls who were still trying to sneak into the court despite Arai's and Kaidoh's efforts at keeping them out.

"Atobe." This time there was a hint of warning in the deadpan.

Atobe sighed, as if in forced resignation. With an elegant flourish, he pulled out an exquisitely wrapped gift box.

"This is for you… Kunimitsu-kun."

Complete silence dominated. Even Inui's frantic scribbling stopped. Atobe did not notice.

"And this too." An elegant red envelope joined the gift. "Invitation to the Valentine's Party taking place tonight at my mansion."

Tezuka's expressionless eyes widened just a smidgeon. Fuji's eyes, on the other hand, were fully open as he stared at Atobe's arrogant smirk.

* * *

Next Up: Inui. Who sorta gets what he wanted... and then some.

A.N.: For those of you not familiar with Japanese etiquette and culture, I'll going to go over the whole first-names vs. last-names issue. In Japan, manners are very important, and it's considered polite to call people only by their last names, usually with the appropriate appellations (eg. Tezuka-_buchou_, Oishi-_senpai_, Shishido-_san_, etc.) attached. Among peers, especially among boys, the only time you call someone by their first name is if you're on very, very familiar terms with the guy or if you're being very rude. This is why in the anime Oishi and Fuji calls Eiji by "Eiji", while Tezuka and Ryuzaki-sensei calls him by "Kikumaru". The VIZ manga translations in America, of course, got the whole thing wrong as usual by translating all references to names into first names. But most people write by the anime anyways, who does get the name issue right. At any rate, circling back to my story, this is the reason why it's such a big deal when Atobe calls Tezuka "Kunimitsu-kun", because Atobe is indicating that either he's being rude to to Tezuka, or he's taking liberties at being very personal with him. Either option is likely to send the other Seigaku boys into shock.

Also, for the reviewer who asked where Tezuka was - he's in class 3-1, whereas Oishi is in class 3-2 and Eiji & Fuji are in class 3-6. This makes sense, since in the anime we see that both Tezuka and Oishi are their class presidents and representative to the student council. Thus, they obviously couldn't be in the same class. (It's also interesting to note that some Japanese middle schools rank their students into classes according to their grades. Ie. Tezuka's class would be where they put all the best students, and Oishi's the next best batch... The reason that Fuji ended up in a lower class with Eiji could either be because he put himself there on purpose to stay with his friend, or because Fuji is the kind of person who does the absolute minimum of what he can get away with and can't be bothered with exerting himself for more unless sufficiently motivated, usually by someone else.)

Vocabulary:  
tensai - prodigy  
senpai - upperclassman  
sensei - teacher, coach  
buchou - team captain _and_ president of the club  
ore-sama - highly grandiose reference to oneself  
Ore-sama no bigi ni yoina - "Indulge yourself in the beauty of my skill"


	5. V Inui

**Spring Fever**

**V. Inui**

After the elucidating events of after-school practice, Inui walked down the halls of the school with his ever-present notebook in hand, his mind awhirl with calculations of how long Atobe had to live before Fuji wreaked unholy vengeance upon him. Pure bedevilment shown in his eyes, though no one was likely to see that – they wouldn't have to, since the evil light glaring off his glasses was hint enough.

Yes indeed, today was an excellent day for data gathering, just like he had predicted at the beginning of the month.

Then a slight frown marred his brow. Well, there was _one_ thing that hadn't quite gone right today. Kaidoh hadn't seemed to like the Valentine's Day present he'd given his kouhai. In fact, he'd reacted to it much more aversely than Inui had calculated from his notes on Kaidoh's previous exposures to his concoctions and his estimations of the resulting degree of immunity that Kaidoh should have had. Inui made a mental note to re-investigate the new ingredients he used to make his "Inui Super Distilled Valentine Candy Drops" in order to find out just what exactly the younger boy had reacted to. He was sure Kaidoh wouldn't mind helping him determine any possible allergies he might have – it was for his benefit, after all. But then again… maybe it was better he didn't tell the other beforehand anyways.

Anticipation caused the evil smugness to return to Inui's expression. But before he could indulge in outright mad cackling, just because it seemed the appropriate thing to do, he was interrupted by a beeping from his cell phone.

It was a text message from Renji telling him that his email inbox was full again, plus a small postscript at the bottom wishing him a productive Valentine's Day. Inui sighed in exasperation. That had happened the previous year too. Who knew that there were such perils to having a large number of shy female students in his computer class? Truly, the female computer geek was a creature that must be treated with extreme caution.

Making another mental note to clean his email inbox again, Inui turned a corner and nearly walked into Kaidoh.

"Inui-senpai…" The younger boy greeted softly, eyes darting around as if looking for an escape route.

"Ah, Kaidoh. Are you feeling better now?" Inui continued to walk, knowing from his calculations that Kaidoh would be polite enough to follow until the conversation was over.

"Hai."

"I really didn't expect you to react so strongly to my candy," Inui offered as a partial apology. It was rather embarrassing to have the nurse called in at the end of lunch to revive other boy after he had keeled over from Inui's present. At least Kaidoh wasn't looking green now.

"Hai." Kaidoh's eyes darted around again.

"I'd calculated how much immunity to my mixtures you have gained from the training regimen you've been using, and it should have been well within your tolerances. I must have missed something." Now he was just rambling, as he was sometimes wont to do. He liked having Kaidoh around – just as a willing guinea pig, mind – and he didn't want to scare off the boy now.

"Hai." Was that a glimmer of… something… in the other boy's eyes now? Ii data.

By then they'd come to Inui's locker. Inui casually opened the door and was immediately bombarded with a veritable waterfall of computer chips, calculators, test tubes, chemistry sets, and various electronic devices, all wrapped or decorated in red ribbons. Finally, a huge, full-sized LCD computer monitor with a pink bow attached to it careened out of the locker to land right onto his head.

"I-te."

Kaidoh blinked at the pile of electronics where his senpai had been standing, then stared at the giant tank of nitrogen that was left standing in the locker, before finally his sense of responsibility kicked in and he started to dig through the pile. It took a little while to extricate Inui from the pile of anonymous gifts.

"Well," the bespectacled boy mused as he surveyed the mess. "I suppose this will keep me stocked for the rest of the year."

A small smile of amusement tugged at Kaidoh's lips as he plucked a brightly colored piece of paper out of Inui's hair. It was a discount ad for contact lenses.

* * *

Next Up: Kaidoh. Who's having a typical bad-luck day.

Vocabulary:  
kouhai - underclassman  
senpai - upperclassman  
Hai - yes  
Ii data. - "Good data"  
Ite - owch


	6. VI Kaidoh

**Spring Fever  
VI. Kaidoh**

Kaidoh absently stretched his arms as he made his way to his own locker. Despite the moment of amusement he felt at seeing Inui buried under a pile of unexpected gifts, he really just wanted the day to be over. Valentine's has never been a day he enjoyed, but this one had been especially painful. It all came back to being Inui's fault, really, though he was loath to place blame onto a senpai.

He really should have known better than to accept the candy that Inui had given him, present or not, especially when the other had insisted on him to tasting it right then. Of course the candy been spiked with Inui juice or whatever the latest concoction his senpai had come up with. It had taken a while for the school nurse to revive him, and longer to convince her than he wasn't suffering from food poisoning, but had only been subjected to the potion that was regularly used to punish or "motivate" the regulars of the tennis club.

But then the nurse had insisted that he come into the office for a more complete checkup. _That_ had led to walking in on two familiar figures waiting for the nurse in such a… compromising position. There were some things he really didn't want to know about the Golden Pair, though he recalled that Oishi-senpai had been as embarrassed as he was. Fortunately, the nurse had been so distracted by her new patient that she hadn't noticed him making a quick escape.

Unfortunately, he hadn't been able to escape contact with Inui-senpai for the rest of the day. Just how did Inui get him to follow along like that? Kaidoh frowned as he remembered the Valentine's gifts from Inui's locker, now in annoyance rather than amusement, though he didn't quite know why. What kind of girls would give _those_ kinds of presents on Valentine's Day? It was so… untraditional.

Kaidoh hissed and glared at the locker in front of him, realizing with a start that he'd arrived at his destination. With a negligent sweep, he opened his locker door only to be flooded with his own little waterfall of Valentines chocolates and… snake dolls and… snake shaped cookies and other variations of the theme. Last of all, a tacky green plastic boomerang decorated with a bright pink heart fell out to conk him squarely on the head.

Kaidoh wasn't blind to the irony of his situation. Since when did he have admirers?

"Oi, Mamushi! Just like you to get snakes for Valentine's Day!" Unfortunately, a certain annoyance hadn't blind to his situation either.

As usual, a yelling match promptly ensued between Kaidoh and Momoshiro, which then progressed into a fight consisting of the aforementioned gifts used as projectile weaponry. Kaidoh flung the gaudy boomerang at Momoshiro, who ducked out of the way and tossed back a stuffed snake doll that came complete with a green bandanna. Kaidoh dodged the doll, and then was forced to dodge again as the boomerang circled back toward his own head. Its path unimpeded, the boomerang sailed away into the shadows of the corridor.

"AYI! ITE!"

The impromptu fight was abruptly halted when both boys heard the exclamation. They turned to see a few girls lurking in the shadows of the corridor, one of whom had just been beamed by the boomerang. These were actually the members of Kaidoh's unofficial fan club, who were mostly too scared of the object of their affections to ever approach him on their own. As it was, many of them were nearly in tears, seeing their presents so ruined by the fighting. Unfortunately, neither of the boys knew this, so they were only aware that the errant boomerang had apparently struck an innocent bystander. A girl at that.

Kaidoh hissed. This was just not his day.

* * *

Next Up: Momoshiro. Plus appearances from the Fudomine boys (and girl).

Vocabulary:  
senpai - upperclassman  
Mamushi - Viper (Kaidoh's nickname)  
ite - ouch


	7. VII Momoshiro

**Spring Fever  
VII. Momoshiro**

Momoshiro was still muttering unkind things about that "baka mamushi" when he made it to the street courts. He had thought to find Fudomine's Tachibana An there, in hopes of receiving a Valentine's gift from the girl. Unfortunately, he got Kamio instead.

"Why do _you_ want to know where An-chan is!" demanded the Fudomine speed demon hotly. "Baka! Do you think she's going to have Valentine's chocolates for _you_!"

"Oi! Why not!" Momoshiro shouted back just as loudly. After all, if Atobe could get presents from the Seigaku girls, he figured that he had a pretty good chance with one Fudomine girl. "Just because _you_ didn't get anything from her doesn't mean _I_ don't have a better chance!"

"What did you say!" Kamio's knuckles were white from gripping his racquet. "You take that back!" Apparently, Momoshiro's random taunt had accidentally hit a nerve.

"I was right?" Momoshiro burst out snickering. "Oh-hehe-that just shows _you_, rhythm freak. What, did she give chocolates to everybody else on your team except you?"

Kamio sputtered screeched out before he could think. "Baka! An-chan wasn't even AT school today so of course I didn't get anything from her! Nobody did!"

"Eh?" Momoshiro blinked, his attention suddenly diverted by the new topic. "Not at school? How come?"

"How would _I_ know!" Kamio continued yelling, lost as he was in the familiar rhythm of arguing with the Seigaku second-year.

"Hey! You don't have to shout!" Momoshiro yelled back automatically.

"None of you really have to shout to be heard since you're standing so close that you can hear each other perfectly fine even if you whispered. I don't know why you two always yell when you see each other. It's not like you suddenly become deaf and actually need to shout…"

Naturally, Ibu Shinji had been mumbling in a steady stream of semi-irrelevant commentary from the moment that Kamio had ditched their game-in-progress to scream at the new Seigaku arrival. And also just as naturally, everyone ignored him.

"…I don't see the big deal about getting Valentine's Day chocolates from An. I bet you both get lots of chocolates from girls at school already. Eating that much chocolate in one day can't be good for you, so I don't know why you still want more. But if I'd known Kamio wanted chocolate that much I might've got him some too, except today is supposed to be for girls only and I'm not a girl, which isn't fair since White Day is only for returning presents from Valentine's Day and there isn't any holiday for boys to give chocolates first. I think if there was a day like that I'd give chocolates to Kamio so he wouldn't get so mad arguing with Momoshiro about getting chocolates from An, who probably didn't come to school on purpose because she likes to make them argue more, like they always do after talking to her…"

A feminine giggle from behind him caused Shinji to pause in his quiet monologue. He turned to see none other than the object of the ongoing argument at the court, Tachibana An, giggling into her hands behind him.

"Maa Shinji-kun, you're much more perceptive than I thought," said An. "It's too bad that not many people ever really listen to what you're saying."

When she spoke, her voice immediately caught the attention of both Kamio and Momoshiro.

"An-chan!"

"I'm sorry I made you two wait, Kamio-kun, Momo-kun," An chirped brightly as she waved, the very picture of innocence. "I didn't think you'd all get so upset with each other because of me."

The two boys in question immediately started protesting that they were arguing over her. But they quieted when An pulled out two boxes of chocolates, one for each of them. The two rivals mumbled their thanks to An while they covertly shot hostile glances at each other – or, at least, Kamio was shooting most of the hostile looks while Momoshiro split his attention between glaring and clumsily attempting to flatter An, possibly (to Kamio's mind) as a prelude to asking her out.

"Oh!" An's soft exclamation suddenly brought the boys up short. She stared at her watch. "I'm sorry guys, but I have to run. I have to meet my brother and I still have one last box of Valentine's chocolates to give to him!"

With that, she ran off without waiting for a response, leaving Kamio and Momoshiro to gape after her, choking on the fact that they'd been ditched for An's own brother once again.

* * *

Next Up: Fuji. Who gets another name for his hit list.

Author's Notes:  
Someone tells me that the typical Japanese school year begins around April. That means Valentine's Day would take place near the end of the school year, long after the Nationals are over. In that case, I suppose this fic can take place perfectly well in anime continuity.

Vocabulary:  
baka - idiot  
mamushi - viper


	8. VIII Fuji

**Spring Fever  
VIII. Fuji**

Strangely enough, Fuji was still the first person to arrive home, despite having dropped by Eiji's house to check up on his friend and drop off the day's assignments. The acrobat had looked much better, though it was amusing that he still feigned illness to find excuses to lean on or cuddle up with his indulgent doubles partner – under the very noses of his family, no less. Fuji had left before he was tempted to say something that would no doubt reveal the sneaky redhead's not so innocent wiles. Though, somehow, the tensai had the feeling that Oishi wasn't quite oblivious to what Eiji was up to, something that Eiji would probably find out in his own good time. Oh to be a fly on that wall…

However, thoughts of the golden duo also brought to mind Fuji's own "relationship" with Tezuka – or rather, the lack of progress thereof. Perhaps scaring off the girls who gave the stern buchou chocolates wasn't the best tactic to take. But then, his slight mischief had been totally eclipsed by the arrival of Atobe Keigo during afternoon practice. Atobe, who had the audacity to not only give Tezuka of all people Valentine's chocolates and call him so familiarly, but also invite him to some private party.

Fuji had decided right then that he was not going to go through with his plans to give Tezuka _his_ Valentine's chocolates as he'd planned to after practice. He wasn't going to put his gift anywhere near a position of comparison with anything from the Hyoutei diva.

With a sigh, Fuji sat down to remove his shoes as he silently pondered over the name at the top of his mental list. How to deal with Atobe…

Suddenly, the door behind him swung open again and a figure hurried through, almost tripping over Fuji's still-seated form. A shopping bag filled with Valentine's chocolates landed haphazardly on the ground, spilling several gift-wrapped boxes near Fuji's feet. The door slammed shut and Fuji looked up to see his younger brother Yuuta leaning against it as if in fear that someone was going to break through any moment now.

"Maa. You certainly are popular with the girls at school, Yuuta." Fuji teased, since it was obvious what his brother had been running from.

"Shut up, aniki!" Yuuta snapped. He looked angry and frustrated – which was to say he looked normal. Without looking at his older brother, Yuuta reached down and tugged off his shoes. He then grabbed at the fallen presents, roughly shoving them back into the bag.

Fuji chuckled as he reached down to help pick up the presents. "It's nothing to be ashamed of, Yuu—"

Yuuta looked up as his brother's voice cut off mid-sentence, sweeping up the last of the presents as he did so. Upon seeing the light purple package in Fuji's hands, he froze as well.

"Yuuta." Fuji looked up from where he had been staring at the tag on the brightly wrapped present. His eyes were open.

"What?" Yuuta snapped. Inwardly, he cursed at his luck. Why did his overbearing brother just have to pick up _that_ box?

"This is from Mizuki." There was an implicit demand for answers in the statement. Just what was Mizuki doing giving _Yuuta _a Valentine's Day present?

Not having any answers that he wanted to give to his brother, Yuuta responded the same way he always did when he was uncomfortable around Fuji. He snatched the gift from his brother's hands and yelled, "none of your business, baka aniki!" Then without waiting for a response or further interrogation, Yuuta ran for his room, fully intent on locking himself in for the rest of the day.

Fuji noted the slight blush that had stained Yuuta's face upon being questioned. Mentally, he added the name of St. Rudolph's tennis team manager to his mental list. Atobe, he decided, won't be suffering alone.

* * *

Next Up: White Day. Where happy endings come before the not-so-happy endings.

Vocabulary:  
buchou - captain and club president  
aniki - older brother  
baka - stupid; idiot


	9. IX White Day

**Spring Fever  
IX. White Day:**

It wasn't easy to catch Kikumaru Eiji alone during lunch, but Fuji was currently off somewhere, presumably noting down the people who were receiving a White Day present from Tezuka, so Oishi took the opportunity share a private moment with his partner. Even though, it was perhaps also for the best that he was not aware of the many girls lurking in their general vicinity, quietly squealing over the cuteness that was the Golden Pair.

"This is for the Valentine's cookies you gave me, Eiji," Oishi said with a smile as he handed Eiji a gift box wrapped in gleaming white paper and adorned with a single red ribbon tied in a neat bow.

Eiji grabbed the proffered gift and shook it lightly by his ear, grinning as he heard the telltale rattle of what was sure to be candy. "Wai! Sankyuu!" he gushed cheerfully. But then he reached into his bag and pulled out a white-wrapped box as well. "I have something for you too!"

Oishi stared at the new box held out to him in confusion. "Eh? But Eiji, I didn't get you anything on Valentine's Day…"

Eiji grinned mischievously. "Nya, Oishi. You let me have all your other Valentine's chocolates, so that counts too!"

Well, it was more like Eiji had eaten all of his other Valentine's chocolates, permission or not. But as Oishi looked up from the present at his partner's cheerful face, his confusion melted away into a soft smile.

"Aa. I guess it does," he agreed warmly and took the present, carefully placing it into his bag. "Thank you, Eiji."

In complete synch with one another, the Golden Pair picked up their respective bentos, and started on their nice quiet lunch together.

-.-.-

Meanwhile, Ryoma frowned in annoyance as Momoshiro shuffled him off from where he'd been having lunch with the freshman trio. Finally, he pulled his arm out from his senpai's grip and voiced his disgruntlement.

"Momo-senpai! What do you want?"

Momoshiro looked around to see that there wasn't anyone lurking within hearing distance. Then, looking rather embarrassed, he reached into his pocked and pulled out a small gift bag.

"Ne, Echizen. This is for you." He shoved the bag into Ryoma's hands and shuffled a bit on his feet, looking as if he would rather be anywhere else at the moment.

His curiosity piqued, Ryoma reached into the bag and took out a small white box of store-bought candy. The younger boy blinked up at his still nervous senpai.

"What's the present for?" he asked. "I didn't give you anything for Valentine's Day."

Momoshiro scratched at the back of his head, looking rather sheepish. "Well, um… I heard Eiji-senpai say he was going to get Oishi-senpai a White Day present because Oishi let him have all of his Valentine's chocolates and that counts as a Valentine's gift too. So I thought since I ate all of your Valentine's chocolates…" Momoshiro looked away in embarrassment, blushing slightly.

Ryoma stared at his senpai, then stared at the present, and then stared up at Momoshiro again. Finally, he looked back down, his hat covering his eyes.

"Aa. Thank you… Momo-senpai."

Momoshiro looked at Ryoma in slight surprise. The younger boy simply pulled his hat down lower to hide his smile, which for once was lacking his usual snark.

-.-.-

Later that afternoon found Kaidoh finishing up his daily training regimen by the river. Finishing his last round of stretches, the second year quietly gathered up his things in preparation to depart. He was aware at all times of the intent gaze that was pinned to his back, but still jumped when the presence that had watched him throughout his exercises finally spoke aloud.

"Kaidoh."

Kaidoh paused in his steps, but didn't turn around. He heard soft footsteps behind him, but kept his gaze steadily downwards, staring at the movement of the second shadow that moved up to join his.

"Kaidoh, thank you for the White Day present."

He felt the light breath that carried those words flutter across his neck… or was that simply the evening breeze?

Inui simply stood there as Kaidoh suddenly sprinted away. He hadn't expected the carefully wrapped box of crudely homemade marshmallows in his locker, especially not after the minor disaster that his Valentine's Day gift had been. But at least he had correctly predicted the results of this confrontation, right down to the faint flush that his highly observant eyes had caught sneaking up Kaidoh's neck that had nothing to do with the other boy's recent exercise. Amused and content, he merely watched the quickly departing form of his kouhai silhouetted against the golden sunset.

* * *

Next Up: ...and then the not-so-happy endings.

Author's Notes: In case some people were curious about the Valentine's party that Atobe threw, that's going to be told in a separate companion fic to this one. My friend says she wants to write it, so I'm not quite sure of the specifics on that. I'll try to get it up to ffnet anyhow when it comes out.


	10. X Epilogue

**Spring Fever  
X. Epilogue:**

The Next Day

It was a quiet day at the Fuji household until the door to the house suddenly tore open with a resounding crash.

"ANIKI!"

The loud yell was followed by the thunder of running footsteps, and then a second door being slammed open.

"ANIKI!"

Fuji Syuusuke calmly looked up from where he was carefully examining one of his cacti by the windowsill as if it was just a normal day when his younger brother burst into his room looking as if he wanted to commit homicide. Who knew? Perhaps it was.

"Can I help you with something, Yuuta?"

"What did you do to my White Day present!" Yuuta jumped straight to the point out of long experience.

Fuji looked tilted his head in askance. "White… Day… present?"

Yuuta, however, was not buying the innocent routine. "Yes!" he grounded out between clenched teeth, "the present I gave M—You switched it with some poisoned candy!" Some sense of caution prevented him from naming the recipient of his present, even though it was likely a moot point.

Fuji, however, was still playing innocent. "Me? Why do you say it's me who did it?"

"Because I know you!"

"Maa. What kind of person do you think I am, to poison some poor girl you like?" It was amazing how Fuji could still put on a hurt look with his eyes closed.

Yuuta couldn't stand it anymore. "Baka aniki! Mizuki-san's in the hospital because of you!" he blurted out.

As expected, Fuji immediately jumped on to the identity of the gift's intended recipient. "Mizuki?" he asked blandly, "but what would he have to do with your White Day candy?" However, his eyes had opened just a bit, in serious contrast to his words.

Even Yuuta could sense the seriousness of that look, and knew that their conversation wasn't going to get anywhere. Frustrated, he gave one last outburst of "BAKA ANIKI! JUST LEAVE ME ALONE!" before storming out the room and slamming the door behind him once more.

Not long after his brother had departed, and before Fuji could decide whether to follow, his thoughtful contemplation of the door was interrupted by a shrill beeping from his phone.

"Moshi moshi?"

"Fuji, this is Tezuka." The familiar voice as stern as ever.

"Maa, Tezuka. This is a first. What can I do for you?"

There was a slight pause. Then, "Fuji, did you send a White Day's present to Atobe in my name?"

"Ne, why would you think that, Tezuka?" Fuji asked in the exact same tone of innocence he had just used with Yuuta.

"Because I didn't see him at Hyotei yesterday and I received a call from Sakaki-sensei today informing me that Atobe is in the hospital for food poisoning... from White Day marshmallows delivered with my name on it." If Tezuka was unhappy with the situation, his voice certainly didn't show it, even as it always was.

Fuji almost pouted before he remembered that Tezuka couldn't see it over the phone. He settled for a hurt voice. "And you automatically assumed that it was me who did it?"

"Inui tells me he gave you samples of his latest Inui Candy and Aozu two days ago."

"Anou… Maybe I just wanted to try it out myself?" Even Fuji couldn't quite make that sound like a viable excuse, though he certainly tried.

"Fuji." The tone was as stern as ever, and there was an implicit demand of honesty in it.

"Yes, Tezuka?" But Fuji defied it anyway.

There was another small pause. Finally, "50 laps around the court, first thing tomorrow morning."

"…Hai."

"Inui will be running half of those with you." Click.

-.-.-

A Week Later

Atobe dialed the cell phone number he had obtained from St. Rudolph's tennis team manager. It was occasionally useful to deal with stalkers. It was also useful to be able to afford the most expensive Caller ID Blocking services. It wouldn't do for the prey to be alerted before oresama fired his warning shot, after all. He waited until the familiar voice answered the phone.

"Fuji Syuusuke," Atobe announced in his most arrogant voice. "This… means war."

Then he hung up.

-Owari-

Vocabulary:  
aniki - older brother  
baka - stupid; idiot  
moshi moshi - phrase used when answering the phone  
sensei - teacher, coach  
oresama - highly grandiose reference to oneself  
owari - end


End file.
